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CAs using Genetics CAs using Archaeology CAs using Mathematical models CAs using Computer simulations |
It has been known since
Darwin's work
in the 19th century
that all of humanity (indeed all of life)
is on one family tree.
In other words, there existed in the past animals
who are common ancestors
of all humans now living.
What this page is about is when was the most recent
common ancestor of all living humans.
A number of new strands of evidence indicate it was
surprisingly recent, even within recorded history.
- CA
- Common Ancestor of all living humans - There are trillions of these, stretching from the origin of DNA-based life 4 to 3.5 billion years ago to a lot more recently - perhaps even within historical times, as we shall see. Most of these are pre-human animals, but the recent ones are human.
- MRCA
- Most Recent Common Ancestor of all living humans - This is a human, perhaps even within historical times, as we shall see.
The above 2 methods can't tell us the MRCA.
The following 3 methods can, and they all agree. They all say the MRCA is in historical times:
The other thing noted by mathematical models is that not much longer before the MRCA, everyone in the population is either the ancestor of everyone alive today or the ancestor of no one alive today.
Non-random mating would push the MRCA further back. See following.
If we restrict just to the West, rather than the whole world, then the MRCA comes forward: (a) because it is a smaller area, and: (b) because the West, with its constant intermarriage and migration, is closer to a random mating model than the world as a whole is, with its extreme geographical isolation like populations in Australia, the Pacific, etc. Hence the West will have a lot more recent MRCA than the world. See following.
We pick them as an example because they left proven descents for centuries, so it seems likely their descents did not die out, and they are ancestors of some people alive today. Hence probably ancestors of all people alive today.
By "almost all" I mean over 90 percent of the world, including all of the West, almost all of Asia, and most of Africa. Only cases of extreme geographical isolation could prevent this being the whole world, leaving some aboriginal populations out of this recent family tree. If populations were truly geographically isolated for thousands of years then the MRCA of the entire world may be thousands of years ago. Though even that is not certain since there has been a certain amount of interbreeding since these populations were re-contacted in the last few hundred years. And we only need a small amount of interbreeding to get everyone descended from Europeans. That is, we just need to get them genealogically descended, even if it doesn't show in the DNA - even if the European DNA has been swamped by the rest.
We pick him as an example because he is the proven ancestor of some people alive today. Hence probably the ancestor of all people alive today.
We pick him as an example because he is the proven ancestor of some people alive today (for example, he is a proven ancestor of my children). Hence probably the ancestor of all people alive today. By the same reasoning, as well as from Continental/pre-Norman figures like Charlemagne, quite likely everyone in the West descends from figures like:
The Prophet is the proven ancestor of some Muslims alive today, hence probably ancestor of all of them.
There are also many known or suspected Muslim-Christian crossovers, in particular in medieval Spain. Even if specific ones, such as Zaida, dau of the Emir of Seville, are disproved, our model suggests that there will be others. With the Muslim population of medieval Spain descended from the Prophet, it is almost impossible for the Christian population to stay separate. All we need is a tiny amount of interbreeding and fairly soon all the Christian population are descended from the Prophet too, and hence most or all of the West today. And, as we just said, we even have some actual candidates such as Zaida, or Mawiyah, dau of the Caliph of Cordoba. The number of actual Muslim-Christian matings must be much higher than the few that we can prove. Religious barriers can't seriously push back the MRCA, only geographical barriers can.
It is interesting to think that the World Trade Centre attack was almost certainly some descendants of the Prophet killing other descendants of the Prophet.
By the same logic, there were Jews in medieval Spain, and it's hard to see them staying separate from the gradual descent of all of Muslim and Christian Spain from the Prophet. Again, all we need is a tiny amount of interbreeding for this to happen. And later the Jews of Spain were expelled, and are probably hence the ancestors of much or most of the world's Jews today.
It is interesting to think that every Palestinian suicide bombing attack on Israel is almost certainly some descendants of the Prophet killing other descendants of the Prophet.
There would have been no Christianity, Islam, Marxism, Freudianism, communism, Nazism or Maoism. - These are belief systems, collections of beliefs accepted due to charismatic founders.
There would still have been Copernicanism, Newtonianism and Darwinism. - These are discoveries about the world, that would be made no matter what.
Science would still be here, but the religions and totalitarian systems would be different. There may have been no Holocaust. There may have been global nuclear war. Humanity might be extinct.
"Mitochondrial Eve" is only defined relative to AD 2000. In 1000 AD there was a different Mitochondrial Eve, and in 1000 BC there was a different one still.
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